Larry wrote:
Wayne.B wrote in
:


Larry, if you wouldn't mind, can you tell us again about your Skype
telephone device?





You don't need any "device", except a mic of some kind and some speakers
hooked to a computer to use Skype. Skype is simply a piece of Windows
software. *Your only requirement is a Win XP PC*, or now since Skype for
Mobile was coded a Windows CE or later (mine is Windows Mobile 5.01) PDA.
As most notebook/laptop computers run WinXP, they all run Skype's main
software as good as they do at home.

snip...

Ah ha! I'm still running Windows 98. No Skype until I upgrade.

On Fri, 27 Oct 2006 17:23:13 +0000, Don White wrote:

Ah ha! I'm still running Windows 98. No Skype until I upgrade.

for clarity Don, XP would not necessarily constitute an "upgrade". If you
are going to use Skype, you might want to investigate some more robust,
secure operating systems. Investigate OS X on Mac -if money is no object-
or Linux which is free. Both will run Skype software and neither will
leave you feeling like you're walking around with your pants down around
your ankles every time you log on.

mr.b wrote:
On Fri, 27 Oct 2006 17:23:13 +0000, Don White wrote:


Ah ha! I'm still running Windows 98. No Skype until I upgrade.


for clarity Don, XP would not necessarily constitute an "upgrade". If you
are going to use Skype, you might want to investigate some more robust,
secure operating systems. Investigate OS X on Mac -if money is no object-
or Linux which is free. Both will run Skype software and neither will
leave you feeling like you're walking around with your pants down around
your ankles every time you log on.


I tend to be dubious with these too good to be true deals. You comments
tell me I'm on the right track. Thanks!

On Sat, 28 Oct 2006 20:06:14 +0000, Don White wrote:

mr.b wrote:

On Fri, 27 Oct 2006 17:23:13 +0000, Don White wrote:


Ah ha! I'm still running Windows 98. No Skype until I upgrade.


for clarity Don, XP would not necessarily constitute an "upgrade". If you
are going to use Skype, you might want to investigate some more robust,
secure operating systems. Investigate OS X on Mac -if money is no object-
or Linux which is free. Both will run Skype software and neither will
leave you feeling like you're walking around with your pants down around
your ankles every time you log on.


I tend to be dubious with these too good to be true deals. You comments
tell me I'm on the right track. Thanks!

I'd prefer Mac or Linux too, but boats usually need a Windows system
aboard to run navigation software.

I do wish there was a good nav package for Linux.

Matt O.

Matt O'Toole wrote:
I'd prefer Mac or Linux too, but boats usually need a Windows system
aboard to run navigation software.

I do wish there was a good nav package for Linux.


Matt,

Check out http://www.vmware.com

They have an alternative OS solution, but it costs money - not a lot,
but enough to warn you about. They make a Virtual Machine simulator
that runs as an application on most of the common operating systems,
including Linux.

The advantage here is that you can run Linux (for free) as your host OS,
then have one or more "virtual machines" running as applications that
could run a full Windows2000, Windows98, WindowsXP, MAC, etc., each
independent of the other and unaware that they aren't the primary OS.

VMware also allows the virtual machines to have (at your choice) network
connects (via the host OS) to the outside world - or not. So, if you
want to use MicroSloth products (because your favorite apps don't
support Linux yet) but you don't want to expose yourself to the
vulnerabilities of such a buggy and unsafe OS, you can install them
without network availability, run your favorite application, and
eliminate the security risks that networked Windoze systems impose, all
the while using Linux connected to the outside world.

Amusingly, when one of these virtual OS's decides to crash, your
computer (and its native OS and any other VMs) keep working along
merrily. So, although you may be used to the blue screen of death from
Mr. Gates, all that happens when your VM version crashes is that you
"reboot" that particular "application".

Another huge advantage is that each VM can be assigned a fixed amount of
disk space (I tend to make these separate partitions on the native OS
but you don't have to) and you can "back up" the entire VM (as one
single file - think of it as a full disk copy of a traditional system.

The only down sides I can think of are 1) you need to buy VMware, 2)
that VMware tends to need a lot of memory, so you pretty much want to
max out your RAM (which is nowadays very cheap), and 3) that you need a
stand alone install disk for any "client" OS's you want to install.

The last bit is true independent of VMware. It was a dirty trick MS
started using when they realized that folks might want to "reuse" their
software on other machines. What most folks didn't realize is that
when that bought that laptop or desktop "bundled" with Windoze, the OS
that came with it is "hacked" to only run on that specific machine. If
your laptop or desktop died, that OS disk that came with it can not be
used to install Windows on another machine.

So, get a decent laptop or desktop, max out the RAM, install a 40gig (or
more) disk, install Linux as the native OS, purchase VMware, create one
or more Virtual Machines (allocate 3 gigs of disk space to each) onto
which you then install one or more versions of Windows or MAC OS.

This approach, BTW, is also very useful for being able to maintain
applications that are no longer supported on newer versions of your OS.
Just run both OS as VMs, and when you need to use an older
application, switch to that virtual machine.

Cheers,

Robb

On Mon, 30 Oct 2006 00:14:02 GMT, AMPowers
wrote:

This approach, BTW, is also very useful for being able to maintain
applications that are no longer supported on newer versions of your OS.
Just run both OS as VMs, and when you need to use an older
application, switch to that virtual machine.

Cheers,

Robb
================================

Robb, as a point of interest, could you make an image copy of your
present MS OS hard disk, and then boot that up under VM?

On Mon, 30 Oct 2006 00:14:02 +0000, AMPowers wrote:

Matt O'Toole wrote:

I'd prefer Mac or Linux too, but boats usually need a Windows system
aboard to run navigation software.

I do wish there was a good nav package for Linux.


Matt,

Check out http://www.vmware.com

They have an alternative OS solution, but it costs money - not a lot,
but enough to warn you about. They make a Virtual Machine simulator
that runs as an application on most of the common operating systems,
including Linux.

The advantage here is that you can run Linux (for free) as your host OS,
then have one or more "virtual machines" running as applications that
could run a full Windows2000, Windows98, WindowsXP, MAC, etc., each
independent of the other and unaware that they aren't the primary OS.

VMware also allows the virtual machines to have (at your choice) network
connects (via the host OS) to the outside world - or not. So, if you
want to use MicroSloth products (because your favorite apps don't
support Linux yet) but you don't want to expose yourself to the
vulnerabilities of such a buggy and unsafe OS, you can install them
without network availability, run your favorite application, and
eliminate the security risks that networked Windoze systems impose, all
the while using Linux connected to the outside world.

Amusingly, when one of these virtual OS's decides to crash, your
computer (and its native OS and any other VMs) keep working along
merrily. So, although you may be used to the blue screen of death from
Mr. Gates, all that happens when your VM version crashes is that you
"reboot" that particular "application".

Another huge advantage is that each VM can be assigned a fixed amount of
disk space (I tend to make these separate partitions on the native OS
but you don't have to) and you can "back up" the entire VM (as one
single file - think of it as a full disk copy of a traditional system.

The only down sides I can think of are 1) you need to buy VMware, 2)
that VMware tends to need a lot of memory, so you pretty much want to
max out your RAM (which is nowadays very cheap), and 3) that you need a
stand alone install disk for any "client" OS's you want to install.

The last bit is true independent of VMware. It was a dirty trick MS
started using when they realized that folks might want to "reuse" their
software on other machines. What most folks didn't realize is that
when that bought that laptop or desktop "bundled" with Windoze, the OS
that came with it is "hacked" to only run on that specific machine. If
your laptop or desktop died, that OS disk that came with it can not be
used to install Windows on another machine.

So, get a decent laptop or desktop, max out the RAM, install a 40gig (or
more) disk, install Linux as the native OS, purchase VMware, create one
or more Virtual Machines (allocate 3 gigs of disk space to each) onto
which you then install one or more versions of Windows or MAC OS.

This approach, BTW, is also very useful for being able to maintain
applications that are no longer supported on newer versions of your OS.
Just run both OS as VMs, and when you need to use an older
application, switch to that virtual machine.

Robb,

Thanks for your thoughtful reply.

I'm well aware of VMware, having used it since pre-1.0 beta for testing
web platforms. It works great, and is the basis for most web hosting
companies offering VM hosting.

It's overkill for personal use though. By the time you buy a VMware
license plus a Windows license for your Linux laptop, you could almost
have bought a new laptop which comes with Windows anyway. A desktop might
actually be cheaper. Even under VMware, Windows still has to restart when
it crashes. Maybe it does a little quicker but not much. And you're
still stuck with Windows' cluttered interface when running your Windows
programs. So you don't gain a damned thing by doing this.

Engineering issues aside, I much prefer the interface of Mac OS or Linux
desktops to Windows. Also, if nav software were developed for these
platforms it's likely we'd get better designers and smarter programmers
than the ones working in the Windows realm. I'm convinced Maptech's
current developers do not even operate boats.

Matt O.

I have tried downloading Linux off the net but every time the download fails
how can I go about getting linux for free? I've seen where you can purchase
the disk for it and install it off the disk but that's not fre.
"AMPowers" wrote in message
...
Matt O'Toole wrote:
I'd prefer Mac or Linux too, but boats usually need a Windows system
aboard to run navigation software.

I do wish there was a good nav package for Linux.


Matt,

Check out http://www.vmware.com

They have an alternative OS solution, but it costs money - not a lot, but
enough to warn you about. They make a Virtual Machine simulator that
runs as an application on most of the common operating systems, including
Linux.

The advantage here is that you can run Linux (for free) as your host OS,
then have one or more "virtual machines" running as applications that
could run a full Windows2000, Windows98, WindowsXP, MAC, etc., each
independent of the other and unaware that they aren't the primary OS.

VMware also allows the virtual machines to have (at your choice) network
connects (via the host OS) to the outside world - or not. So, if you
want to use MicroSloth products (because your favorite apps don't support
Linux yet) but you don't want to expose yourself to the vulnerabilities of
such a buggy and unsafe OS, you can install them without network
availability, run your favorite application, and eliminate the security
risks that networked Windoze systems impose, all the while using Linux
connected to the outside world.

Amusingly, when one of these virtual OS's decides to crash, your computer
(and its native OS and any other VMs) keep working along merrily. So,
although you may be used to the blue screen of death from Mr. Gates, all
that happens when your VM version crashes is that you "reboot" that
particular "application".

Another huge advantage is that each VM can be assigned a fixed amount of
disk space (I tend to make these separate partitions on the native OS but
you don't have to) and you can "back up" the entire VM (as one single
file - think of it as a full disk copy of a traditional system.

The only down sides I can think of are 1) you need to buy VMware, 2) that
VMware tends to need a lot of memory, so you pretty much want to max out
your RAM (which is nowadays very cheap), and 3) that you need a stand
alone install disk for any "client" OS's you want to install.

The last bit is true independent of VMware. It was a dirty trick MS
started using when they realized that folks might want to "reuse" their
software on other machines. What most folks didn't realize is that when
that bought that laptop or desktop "bundled" with Windoze, the OS that
came with it is "hacked" to only run on that specific machine. If your
laptop or desktop died, that OS disk that came with it can not be used to
install Windows on another machine.

So, get a decent laptop or desktop, max out the RAM, install a 40gig (or
more) disk, install Linux as the native OS, purchase VMware, create one or
more Virtual Machines (allocate 3 gigs of disk space to each) onto which
you then install one or more versions of Windows or MAC OS.

This approach, BTW, is also very useful for being able to maintain
applications that are no longer supported on newer versions of your OS.
Just run both OS as VMs, and when you need to use an older application,
switch to that virtual machine.

Cheers,

Robb

since when is linux free? I have tried downloading the free linux out there
but never have been successful the download always fails for some reason

"mr.b" wrote in message
news
On Fri, 27 Oct 2006 17:23:13 +0000, Don White wrote:

Ah ha! I'm still running Windows 98. No Skype until I upgrade.

for clarity Don, XP would not necessarily constitute an "upgrade". If you
are going to use Skype, you might want to investigate some more robust,
secure operating systems. Investigate OS X on Mac -if money is no object-
or Linux which is free. Both will run Skype software and neither will
leave you feeling like you're walking around with your pants down around
your ankles every time you log on.

On Tue, 31 Oct 2006 09:34:32 +0000, Chi Chi wrote:

since when is linux free? I have tried downloading the free linux out
there but never have been successful the download always fails for some
reason

chi chi,

start reading here, it's been a personal flavourite for about 8 years now

http://www.slackware.com

and if you can't it get from one of the mirrors listed on this page

http://dev.slackware.it/getslack/mirrors.php

then to paraphrase HAL, this kind of problem has always been the result of
human error